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Advocating to Abolish Private Prisons

Approximately 6 percent of state prisoners and 16 percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated in for-profit prisons. The evidence that governments can save money through privatization is mixed at best—in fact, private prisons may in some instances cost more than governmental ones. Private prisons have also been linked to numerous cases of violence and atrocious conditions. Safer Society Foundation seeks to encourage state governments to follow the recently-established federal precedent of ending the decades-long trend of the privatization of prisons in America.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons Investigates Its Privately-Run Prisons

An exhaustive investigation of private prisons in federal use was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and published in August, 2016. The investigators determined that the private prisons incurred more safety and security incidents per capita than comparable Bureau of Prisons institutions.

At Long Last, Federal Use of Private Prisons is Coming to an End

The U.S. Justice Department has finally come to the realization that the private prisons used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons are more costly and more inhumane than the government-operated prisons. As reported in the Washington Post, August 18, 2016, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates has instructed department officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prisons or substantially reduce the contracts’ scope. “The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons. They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,”